To The Citizens of the Lisbon Community

The Lisbon Concerned Citizens and the Lisbon Reporter have brought information to you that some have scorned as 'untruths', 'negative', and we even have been 'chastised' in Town Council meetings.
We are not here to belabor those facts. Our purpose has been, and will continue to be, to bring forth information that YOU the readers, the voters, the residents, need, to make better informed decisions. In the interest of that, sometimes it may seem unbelievable and other times humor has been interjected. We have worked diligently and decisively to bring forward factual information to our readers. That will continue.

With that said the following information pertains to information that we have gathered and corresponds to the immediate issue of just What Is Going On in Our Town.

By the time most of you local readers view this, Tues. night's Town Council meeting will have aired and some may still have questions. We are honored to present these facts and have all the documentation to back up what is said.

As most of you all ready know Lisbon's current Town Manager, Steve Eldridge, was the former Town Manager of Rumford. He was employed for a few years there (2005-2007). The Lisbon Town Council elected to oust Curtis Lunt as manager and appointed Chief of Police, David T. Brooks to ACT as interim Town Manager for a few months. The Town Council hired Mr. Eldridge into present position. Mr. Eldridge became Lisbon's current manager in January of 2008.

This week the Town Council and the Water Department got together for a work shop to discuss matters pertaining to "Electronic Data". Specifically software, Northern Data Systems and TRIO.

In our research we have learned that the Town of Rumford used TRIO software under the advisement of then Town Manager Steve Eldridge. But what no one has said, until now, is that for their application TRIO did not suffice in doing the job that needed to be done.

The following snipits are from Rumford's report on their accounting practices during fiscal years 2006 and 2007 ending June 30th of each year.

Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2006

Findings-- Inter-fund transfers were not properly recorded and a proper audit trail was not maintained for these funds. The Transfer account was not used and the transfers were not clearly identified in either the "Appropriations Control Report" or in the "Revenue Control Report".

Findings-- The Town's trust funds are not properly maintained. The terms of the trust(s) and, therefore, principal balances are not adequately documented and, as a result, trust spending has exceeded the principal balance that is legally required to be maintained. This would be a legal breach of the trust agreement unless the spending represents internal borrowing. If such internal borrowing has occurred, there is no internal documentation to document it.

Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2007

Finding:-- The Town of Rumford was not ready for its audit. The Town's financial statements and account balances were not completed at the close of its fiscal year. When the Town's personnel believed that the financial statements were ready for audit, in late August and early September of 2007, it was apparent that no one had read them. The balance sheet indicated that there had been a $13,000,000.00 loss during the year. The revenue and expenditure schedules had numerous instances of duplicate entries and there were numerous instances of entering revenues in expenditure accounts thus understating revenues and understating expenditure.

The final accounting entry adjustments were not made until May of 2008. The final taxes receivable balances were not provided until the end of November of 2007. The sewer tax commitment was not prepared and no sewer bills were issued. The bank statements were not organized. There was a lack of control of the inventory at the Town Garage. Finally, there was, or appeared to be, an attempt to conceal the existence of a contingent liability.

The following are recommendations for the Town of Rumford.

Recommend-- the Tax Collector's office computer(s) be disconnected from the Town's data base and/or computer. In this way the Town's financial statements will not be contaminated by work being carried out in the Tax Collector's office. This will, also, protect the Tax Collector's report and deposits from being contaminated by work carried out on the Finance Officer's, the Treasurer's, or any other office or departments' computer. The information delivered to the relevant municipal office from the Tax Collector's office should be done on paper and on digital media.

Recommend-- the Treasurer's office use stand alone computers, too. This will enable the Treasurer's office to perform its duties in a safe environment, free from contamination of other offices' work. Like the Tax Collector, the Treasurer's office will be able to make its reports to the Finance Officer on paper and digitally.

Recommend-- the Treasurer stop mixing or batching bank deposits. It would be better if the money delivered to the Treasurer by the Tax Collector or by any other office were deposited using a separate deposit slip without mixing it with money from other sources. In this way a clear audit trail can be maintained.

To explain it, TRIO is like using Windows 95- their is no safety net, transfers can be made without being traced. and NDS is like Windows Vista there are all kinds of safety nets. Everything is documented and traceable.

The Town of Rumford has incurred over $65,000.00 just this year to get things straightened out since using TRIO. And they do use it now because of all the money that was invested to get it to work. The Town was also forced to raise taxes to cover the minimum reserve account balance. As the Auditor and the State of Maine caught up to the errors made.

Now does any of this sound familiar?

Do you think Lisbon can afford to end up like Rumford?

We don't and you shouldn't either. It is time to make a Change. One for the betterment of Lisbon.

The November election for (3) known vacancies on the Town Council is coming right up. Petitions are available now for those interested in running in the elections. You may pick them up at the Town Clerks office. You only need to get 50 signatures to be placed on the ballot.